I found this forum had very little information about being a vegetarian when I was preparing to leave for Korea last year. So i wanted to write a post my experiences and hopefully this will help and future vegetarian going to Korea.

So I went to Korea, as a vegetarian (I even went vegan for a bit) and I did maintain my vegetarian, but....

Simply put, if you live in Seoul, it's quite easy to maintain your vegetarian diet, if not a little more pricey. In Seoul there are quite a few vegetarian/vegan restaurants and a foreigner vegetarian club and a Korean vegetarian club. If you live outside of Seoul then you will be hard pressed to maintain your diet, if you want to stay healthy, not to say it's impossible, you just better hope you are a really good cook who knows a lot about food!

I lived an hour outside of Seoul and I was constantly going into Seoul to the Foreign Food Market in Itaewon to buy beans and lentils that cost me a great deal of money. I met a lot of people in my city who were vegetarians and gave it up. In fact I started eating fish because if I ever wanted to eat out with friends it was very difficult to get a dish without any sort of meat. Sometimes Koreans give you weird looks to when you tell them you are a vegetarian (Korean word for vegetarian: Chae-shik-chewee). Oh and for some strange reason they don't seem to consider ham to be meat, there were countless times where I would explain in Korean that I am vegetarian or I don't eat meat and then I would get ham in my kim-bop. I started saying "I don't eat meat and I don't eat ham". My vegetarian Korean friend also suggested that I start telling the servers I was allergic and they would start taking me more seriously, before they would use beef broth or use animal fat in the ingredients.

Many people think if you cook at home you should have nothing to worry about. I always cooked at home, however many don't understand the vegetarian diet, no offense. To maintain a healthy vegetarian diet, a vegetarian doesn't just eat vegetables, fruit and grains they have to make sure they get a proper amount of protein and iron. Korea just typically provide the foods you would typically find in North America that is typically used to provide protein. Such as beans, lentils, tempeh... ect. They have tofu, lots of tofu, all kinds of tofu. However you can't rely on just one source of protein, your body needs other sources of protein, not to mention that if don't ferment your tofu properly your body has difficulty processing it.

I also went vegan for a bit, let me tell you it was very difficult! I could never eat out and I always had to eat at home or prepare food. Like I said before it wasn't easy finding ingredients with iron, protein, omega and other nutrients. Although others have done it and all the power to them!

I figured it would be easier to be vegetarian because there was a great deal of Buddhism in Asia. The fact is things are changing there is a lot of Christianity there and Buddhism wasn't as predominant as I thought. Even then a lot of the Korean friends I had who practiced Buddhism weren't vegetarians, they may have ate less meat then most but they still ate it. It seems only the monks really stick to a strict vegetarian diet and they cook for themselves in the temples and they don't exactly eat out regularly or shop in regular supermarkets.

This is a great post!
If you are a vegetarian, I'd recommend writing those phrases down to help when ordering food.
I've always been amazed how I can say I'm a vegetarian and that I don't want any meat (in Korean) and STILL get some type of meat on my pizza. It's like they don't really believe that you don't actually want it and put it on because they know better. So strange!
I've been in Korea for almost 2 years and have stuck with vegetarianism. It's really not that hard. If the reasons you gave up eating meat are strong enough, then there's no reason to quit just because it's harder than your home country. With that said, I'm excited to get back to Canada and explore the grocery store for all the amazing veggie options!

Although I think it is very nice of you to take the time to write a post explaining how to be a vegetarian in korea. You seem to be quite a little bit misinformed yourself.

Heres why;

It isnt difficult for a vegetarian to get iron.
One bowl of bran flakes and some broccoli for lunch isnít too short of the RDA (10/15g).

Outside of seoul there are a lot of places that cater for vegetarians (or at least serve vegi food). In the sticks maybe not but in the cities, yes. In daegu I know of at least 3 restaurants that advertise as being vegetarian. Anyway, its always possible to get u-dong or pajong (to name 2 things off the top of my head) without anything 'extra' added to it if youre hungry.

It is also very easy to find vegetarian ingredients in the bigger marts. In my local supermarket for example (emart/homeplus), I have 5 varieties of high protein vegetarian sausage as well as baked beans and about 25 varities of beans (dried) etc etc.

Koreans all have different perceptions of what meat is. Some people for example donít consider pig or fish as meat. You have to be specific when ordering not just saying Ė Ďim a vegetarianí (youre a what?) or Ďdonít put meat in thisí.
That is just ignorant not to expect some form of animal in your food by saying that.

Korean tofu (while being high-ish in protein) is made partially from rennet. Being a vegetarian you should know that rennet is a gelling agent made from cow bone marrow Ė its not vegetarian and neither is Korean tofu. Donít recommend to people to eat this if they are vegetarian.

Protein Ė I was 92 kg last year of muscle. I got that on a vegetarian diet - in korea.
Everything has protein in it. All life forms are made from protein. While cows have more stomachs than us, they get as big as they do of muscle by eating only grass. Its not difficult to get protein as a vegetarian unless you want to have Ronnie Colemans' legs.

Like I say, I think its nice of you to take the time to post this but you really should do your homework a little bit more.

Let's look up phytates and your Fe+ recommendations. An orange might make a nice addition.

le-paul wrote:

Although I think it is very nice of you to take the time to write a post explaining how to be a vegetarian in korea. You seem to be quite a little bit misinformed yourself.

Heres why;

It isnt difficult for a vegetarian to get iron.
One bowl of bran flakes and some broccoli for lunch isnít too short of the RDA (10/15g).

Outside of seoul there are a lot of places that cater for vegetarians (or at least serve vegi food). In the sticks maybe not but in the cities, yes. In daegu I know of at least 3 restaurants that advertise as being vegetarian. Anyway, its always possible to get u-dong or pajong (to name 2 things off the top of my head) without anything 'extra' added to it if youre hungry.

It is also very easy to find vegetarian ingredients in the bigger marts. In my local supermarket for example (emart/homeplus), I have 5 varieties of high protein vegetarian sausage as well as baked beans and about 25 varities of beans (dried) etc etc.

Koreans all have different perceptions of what meat is. Some people for example donít consider pig or fish as meat. You have to be specific when ordering not just saying Ė Ďim a vegetarianí (youre a what?) or Ďdonít put meat in thisí.
That is just ignorant not to expect some form of animal in your food by saying that.

Korean tofu (while being high-ish in protein) is made partially from rennet. Being a vegetarian you should know that rennet is a gelling agent made from cow bone marrow Ė its not vegetarian and neither is Korean tofu. Donít recommend to people to eat this if they are vegetarian.

Protein Ė I was 92 kg last year of muscle. I got that on a vegetarian diet - in korea.
Everything has protein in it. All life forms are made from protein. While cows have more stomachs than us, they get as big as they do of muscle by eating only grass. Its not difficult to get protein as a vegetarian unless you want to have Ronnie Colemans' legs.

Like I say, I think its nice of you to take the time to post this but you really should do your homework a little bit more.

thats why I said cows had more stomachs - I was taking that into account and didnt want to get into a diatribe about cows digestive systems.
My point was, its possible to get protein from anything - even grass (if you have the right means).

I see I wrote 'g' instead of 'mg' - force of habit. Thank you for pointing that out.

Korean tofu (while being high-ish in protein) is made partially from rennet. Being a vegetarian you should know that rennet is a gelling agent made from cow bone marrow Ė its not vegetarian and neither is Korean tofu. Donít recommend to people to eat this if they are vegetarian.

Where did you get this from if you don't mind? - because i've just looked into that and it doesn't appear to be true

for example - the Pulmuone (main Korean tofu brand) (firm) packet I'm looking at lists the ingredients as 100% 대두Soybeans with 천일염천연응고제(조제해수염화마그네슘,현미유,올리브유) - which means sea salt natural thickener ( sea water magnesium and brown rice oil and olive oil)
That's it - no rennet as far as I can see....

I need to be clear that I am not the kind of person looking to wrestle on the internet. I had no major issue with what you wrote related to protein or cows. Human medical nutrition is more my style

I was simply, and sweetly, trying to get people to look up phytates. I am not anti-vegetarian by any means, however, improperly executed it can leave one at a higher risk for Fe+ deficiency secondary to poor intake and/or intake of Fe+ sources high in phytates. Phytates bind Iron, Zinc and other minerals. This risk is reduced with a heme-iron sourced diet or the inclusion of acidic foods (orange) but hey, meat ain't fer everybody.

And thank you for the Fe+ RDA chart, a nice refresher of my undergrad.

Crap! I swore not to post about nutrition here.

le-paul wrote:

thats why I said cows had more stomachs - I was taking that into account and didnt want to get into a diatribe about cows digestive systems.
My point was, its possible to get protein from anything - even grass (if you have the right means).

I see I wrote 'g' instead of 'mg' - force of habit. Thank you for pointing that out.

Korean tofu (while being high-ish in protein) is made partially from rennet. Being a vegetarian you should know that rennet is a gelling agent made from cow bone marrow Ė its not vegetarian and neither is Korean tofu. Donít recommend to people to eat this if they are vegetarian.

Where did you get this from if you don't mind? - because i've just looked into that and it doesn't appear to be true

for example - the Pulmuone (main Korean tofu brand) (firm) packet I'm looking at lists the ingredients as 100% 대두Soybeans with 천일염천연응고제(조제해수염화마그네슘,현미유,올리브유) - which means sea salt natural thickener ( sea water magnesium and brown rice oil and olive oil)
That's it - no rennet as far as I can see....

[/quote]

I'm horrible at labels in Hangul but you might also look to see if there is something called carrageenan, which is made from seaweed. It's used as a thickener for stuff like soft ice cream. Tofu might be a good application and we know how much folks like their seaweed here.

Guys- the OP was starting a helpful post about being veggie in Korea. Useful; especially to those of use who are, in fact, vegetarian in Korea.

This isn't the place to start a debate about the merits of vegetarianism, or it's effects on health. Head over to "off topic" for that, because it isn't about living in Korea.

Best,
Justin

PS- anyone who is willing to go to the trouble can eat healthily in Korea, vegetarian or not. Anyone who doesn't got to any trouble to eat healthily is likely to be deficient in one thing or another- no matter how much meat they eat. If you look at western diets, iron deficiency isn't nearly as common as the various vitamin deficiencies that come from not eating enough fruit and veg.

Where did you get this from if you don't mind? - because i've just looked into that and it doesn't appear to be true

youre right, the info doesnt state that it has any animal products in it (nor do a lot of things). Theres no regualtions here to declare fat content, 'V', sodium etc.
2 freinds of mine went to the tofu factory for a tour. They asked what a vat was that was being mixed in with the tofu. They were told 'cow'. They were horrified as both of them were also vegetarians.
Ive no reason to doubt them though it may not be the case in every case.

Ive also worked in a korean kitchen and I can tell you - they put animal in everything.

I went to What's David in Songdo, Incheon, and ordered the Vegetarian Pasta and an Italian style (appetizer) pizza with a friend on my birthday. Turns out the pasta (with cheshik written in Korean as well as the word vegetarian in English) had chicken stock in the dish.

Although I think it is very nice of you to take the time to write a post explaining how to be a vegetarian in korea. You seem to be quite a little bit misinformed yourself.

Heres why;

It isnt difficult for a vegetarian to get iron.
One bowl of bran flakes and some broccoli for lunch isnít too short of the RDA (10/15g).

Outside of seoul there are a lot of places that cater for vegetarians (or at least serve vegi food). In the sticks maybe not but in the cities, yes. In daegu I know of at least 3 restaurants that advertise as being vegetarian. Anyway, its always possible to get u-dong or pajong (to name 2 things off the top of my head) without anything 'extra' added to it if youre hungry.

It is also very easy to find vegetarian ingredients in the bigger marts. In my local supermarket for example (emart/homeplus), I have 5 varieties of high protein vegetarian sausage as well as baked beans and about 25 varities of beans (dried) etc etc.

Koreans all have different perceptions of what meat is. Some people for example donít consider pig or fish as meat. You have to be specific when ordering not just saying Ė Ďim a vegetarianí (youre a what?) or Ďdonít put meat in thisí.
That is just ignorant not to expect some form of animal in your food by saying that.

Korean tofu (while being high-ish in protein) is made partially from rennet. Being a vegetarian you should know that rennet is a gelling agent made from cow bone marrow Ė its not vegetarian and neither is Korean tofu. Donít recommend to people to eat this if they are vegetarian.

Protein Ė I was 92 kg last year of muscle. I got that on a vegetarian diet - in korea.
Everything has protein in it. All life forms are made from protein. While cows have more stomachs than us, they get as big as they do of muscle by eating only grass. Its not difficult to get protein as a vegetarian unless you want to have Ronnie Colemans' legs.

Like I say, I think its nice of you to take the time to post this but you really should do your homework a little bit more.

Good post, but I'd like to see you substantiate your claims about rennet. AFAIK, rennet is from the lining of a calf's stomach, not from bone marrow, and is used in cheese. The Loving Hut staff tell me that some brands of tofu aren't vegan because they contain animal-based firming agents and emulsifiers; however, they identified Pulmuone as a vegan brand.

I need to be clear that I am not the kind of person looking to wrestle on the internet. I had no major issue with what you wrote related to protein or cows. Human medical nutrition is more my style

I was simply, and sweetly, trying to get people to look up phytates. I am not anti-vegetarian by any means, however, improperly executed it can leave one at a higher risk for Fe+ deficiency secondary to poor intake and/or intake of Fe+ sources high in phytates. Phytates bind Iron, Zinc and other minerals. This risk is reduced with a heme-iron sourced diet or the inclusion of acidic foods (orange) but hey, meat ain't fer everybody.

And thank you for the Fe+ RDA chart, a nice refresher of my undergrad.

Crap! I swore not to post about nutrition here.

le-paul wrote:

thats why I said cows had more stomachs - I was taking that into account and didnt want to get into a diatribe about cows digestive systems.
My point was, its possible to get protein from anything - even grass (if you have the right means).

I see I wrote 'g' instead of 'mg' - force of habit. Thank you for pointing that out.